(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to removing optical fibre encapsulation and is particularly useful for preparing cable ends of encapsulated fibres in a submarine optical fibre cable, although it is not limited to this application.
(2) Discussion of the Prior Art
Hitherto the cable package of our submarine cable comprised optical fibres individually coated and encapsulated with Sylguard (RTM) and Nylon (RTM) respectively. These fibres were held around a king wire with a whipping and so releasing the fibres was simply achieved by undoing the whipping Removal of the Nylon coating is done mechanically by a stripping tool which cuts a short length of the Nylon which can then be slid off. Removal of the Sylguard can be done mechanically with a stripping loop of fine wire followed by a chemical e.g. acid clean.
The present cable package comprises several coated fibres which are held by a common plastics encapsulation to form the package and the conventional techniques described above are not suitable for releasing the coated fibres from the encapsulation.
It is an object of the present invention to devise a method and apparatus for enabling the fibres to be released from the encapsulation without damaging the fibres.